Pennsylvania and New Jersey credit union groups join forces

The Pennsylvania Credit Union Association and the New Jersey Credit Union League have announced a merger of the two organizations.

Membership of both trade groups have voted in favor of the merger, which will become effective Jan. 1.

The new name, tentatively, will be the PA/NJ Credit Union Association.

Michael Wishnow, senior vice president of marketing and communications for the Pennsylvania Credit Union Association said they will be looking into a rebranding campaign and that will include a new logo for the combined organization and an official name will be finalized.

While the two organizations serve different institutions with different laws in different states, they share a lot of the same needs Wishnow said.

“There’s actually far more in common than there are differences,” he said. “Our economies are similar. Our demographics are similar. We both have a large number of credit unions in our state.”

He said they are also seeing the trend of mergers and acquisitions so both states are seeing fewer but larger credit unions serving a wider range of people.

In fact, Wishnow said, it’s becoming far more common for interstate credit unions to join forces. They are actually the 12^th merger between interstate credit union associations in the country.

Wishnow said the primary roles of the two groups are similar, they advocate for credit unions and provide education, networking and business services, and will benefit from each other’s offerings.

“Somethings in Pennsylvania they don’t do in New Jersey and vice-versa,” he said.

Lobbyists will be maintained both in Harrisburg and Trenton as well as Washington, D.C., he said.

There will be no layoffs as a result of the merger and both organizations will maintain their local offices.